Bush appeals to former Iron Curtain states

President Bush compared Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to communist Iron Curtain-era regimes in an appeal today to Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics and Balkan nations for help fighting terrorism.

‘‘For more than 50 years, the peoples of your region suffered under repressive ideologies that tried to trample human dignity,’’ Bush was to tell officials from about 20 nations gathered in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss combating terrorism.